Amos 7:12-15 / Ephesians 1:3-14 / Mark 6:7-13
Last Tuesday, something happened in Singapore that made big news.
We would have surely read about it, or even got caught in it.
On Tuesday evening, at peak hour, and for an unknown reason (they are still investigating) the trains stopped.
It was a massive breakdown that affected 54 stations simultaneously and it left 250,000 passengers stranded.
It was quite a chaos as passengers scrambled for the free bus rides or tried to get other means of public transportation like the taxis.
For our country where things run efficiently and where we tend to grumble when the trains are delayed or when there is a minor breakdown, this is a big “fail” for public transportation.
It seemed like everything just stopped. It’s nothing to laugh about it especially if we got caught in it.
It may remind us of this wry saying – A bus station is where the bus stops. A train station is where the train stops. On my desk there is a work station …
And so when the trains stopped, there were generally two kinds of reactions of those who were affected – those who think of themselves, and those who think of others.
There were the unpleasant behaviour of those who pushed and jostled in order to get their way, and also those who took advantage of the situation like the private taxi fare hikes.
But there were others who gave way to those in need and practiced charity in the midst of adversity and even took upon themselves to give directions and do crowd-control before the police arrived at the scene.
Truly in the midst of adversity, the character is revealed, and the choice to be selfish or self-giving is put to the test.
In today’s gospel passage, we heard that Jesus summoned the Twelve and sent them out in pairs.
The acceptance to be sent out is the foundation of Christian discipleship.
It means that to be a disciple, one would have to be self-giving. A disciple cannot be selfish or to think of oneself.
For a Christian disciple, salvation is not a private business. We don’t go to heaven alone. It is our mission to bring others to heaven.
In other words, their salvation is our concern, because God wants everybody to be saved.
We have to think of others, even if they don’t appreciate it or take it for granted or even downright rejecting us.
Maybe this story of the mousetrap might help us understand the welfare and of others is our concern.
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall and saw the farmer and his wife opening a package.
"What food might this contain?" the mouse wondered, but he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his knife to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. So there goes the chicken.
But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbours came to take care of her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well and eventually she died. So many people came for her funeral, so the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
The moral of the story is that when we hear of someone who is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern us, remember - when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep our eyes for one another and make an extra effort to help one another.
When it’s every man for himself, then all necks end up in the chopping block.
God thought of us and He made the first and decisive move in Jesus Christ, Who laid down His life for us to turn us from our selfish ways of self-destruction.
When the trains stopped on Tuesday, some thought only of themselves and became selfish.
Some thought of others and became self-giving to solve the problems of others.
As for us, the disciples of Jesus, let us heed the call to be sent to others and to be with them in their problems.
Let us make their welfare our concern. Their salvation is our mission. Because it is together with them that we will go to heaven.